dertaking the
management of the case, and, while I intend to remain here, I wish you
to engage the services of some trustworthy nurse who understands the
treatment of this disease. Can you recommend such a person?"

"Yes, madam; I can send you a man in whom I have entire confidence,
and fortunately he is not at present employed. If you desire it, I
will see him within the next hour, and give him all requisite
instructions about the patient."

"Promptness in this matter will greatly oblige me, and I wish to spare
no expense in contributing to the comfort and restoration of the
sufferer. As I am utterly unknown to you, I prefer to place in your
hands a sufficient amount to defray all incidental expenditures."

She laid a roll of bills upon the table, and as Dr. Clingman counted
them, she added,--

"It is possible that I may be attacked by this disease, though I have
been repeatedly vaccinated; and if I should die, please recollect that
you will find in my purse a memorandum of the disposition I wish made
of my body,--also the address of my agent and banker in New York
City."

With mingled curiosity and admiration the physician looked at the
pale, handsome woman, who spoke of death as coldly and unconcernedly
as of to-morrow's sun, or next month's moon.

"Madam, allow me to ask if you have no friends in this city,--no
relatives nearer than New York?"

"None, sir. It is my wish that our conversation should be confined to
the symptoms and treatment of your patient."

Dr. Clingman bowed, and, after writing minute instructions upon a
sheet of paper left on the mantelpiece, took his departure.

Securing the door on the inside, Mrs. Carlyle threw aside her bonnet
and wrappings, and came back to the sufferer on the bed.

Eight years of reckless excess and dissipation had obliterated every
vestige of manly beauty from features that disease now rendered
loathsome, and the curling hair and long beard were unkempt and
grizzled.

Leaning against the pillow, the lonely woman bent over to scrutinize
the distorted, burning face, and softly took into her cool palms one
hot and swollen hand, which in other days she had admiringly stroked,
and tenderly pressed against her cheek and lips. How totally unlike
that countenance, which, handsome as Apollyon, had looked down at her
on her bridal day, and fondly whispered--"my wife."

Memory mercilessly broke open sealed chambers in that wretched woman's
heart, and out of one leaped